Please turn in your Bibles tonight
to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 32. I could have chosen many texts
in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. for what
I want to begin to try to say to you tonight. Deuteronomy chapter
32, beginning to read in verse 1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because
I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. Since God is holy, He must be just. That's what I want us to think
about. We talk about the attributes
of God, but the things that we are looking
at, they are God. And one of these things that
makes up God is this. God is just. And He does as He is. He holds,
as it were, the scales of His justice in almighty hands and in holy
hands. You know, the symbol of justice
in our day is the woman blindfolded and holding the scales of justice. But God is very open-eyed and
all-seeing. Job expresses it like this, touching
the Almighty, we cannot find Him out. He is excellent in power
and in judgment, and in plenty of justice He will not afflict. He is in plenty of justice. The psalmist says this of God,
justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. Somebody described or defined
justice in this way. Justice is to give everyone his
due. It is to be fair. It is to do in all things and
deal with all things in equity. Sometimes we hear foolish people
say that all they want is for God to be fair with them. And when I hear that, I want
to say to them, and I sometimes do, you can count on it. God will be fair with you. But the problem is, God is not
who you think He is. and you are not who you think
you are. He is in all cases just. As a matter of fact, His will
and His works are justice. The way we know what is just
and what justice is, it is in all God wills and all God does. And He's going to deal with every
person as He is this just God. In Proverbs it says, If thou
sayest, Behold, we knew it not, Doth not he that pondereth the
heart consider it? And he that keepeth the soul,
doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every
man according to his works?" God's justice, as we see it particularly
set forth in the Bible, is demonstrated on two fronts. First of all, God is just in
the punishment of the wicked. God must and God will punish
sin, and He will be just in doing so. He will be just in all that
he renders in judgment. Let me read you a couple of verses
in the Revelation, because in the Revelation we have the visions
that God gave to John, and therefore to us, concerning these final
judgments that this just God will bring to pass. In Revelation
16 it says, And I heard the angel of the water say, Thou art righteous,
O LORD, which art, and was, and shall be, because thou hast judged
thus. For they have shed the blood
of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink,
for they are worthy." You brought judgment, and your judgment upon
these that he speaks of, the angel says, is a just judgment. And then again, in that same
book, in Revelation 19, it says, And after these things I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven. These aren't just
angels. These are the Lord's people in
heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God." Listen to what follows. For true
and righteous are His judgments, for He hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath
avenged the blood of His servants at His hands. true and righteous
are His judgments. And that is because He is just. And He deals with men, all men,
in this strict judgment and justice, not in some abstract way, but
because, number one, He has given us His law. He has commanded
us how we are to be and what we are to do. And He exercises
His justice with the full knowledge of all that we are because it
says He looks on the heart. He is fair and He is equitable
in all that He does because He knows all things. And He only executes His justice
on the full proof and with full evidence of everything that is
and has been done, even looking into our consciences. We may cover up things. And we may seek to have God deal
unjustly with us, but He will deal justly. He even, as I said,
looks into the conscience. David knew that. We find him
confessing in Psalm 51 to the Lord these things, against thee,
And thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest." You know my thoughts. You know
what I've done. You know the wickedness of my
heart. I confess this to you and acknowledge
that everything you would do to me, you would do to me and
be just in doing it." Some people look at the world
in each day in which men live. And they look at what seems to
be to them the prosperity of the wicked and those who do the
vilest things and act in the most horrible manner, and they
say, well, God, if He were just, would not allow that. That kind of is expressed in
Jeremiah 12, the prophet saying, Righteous art thou, O LORD, when
I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the
wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy
that deal very treacherously? You ever get to thinking about
that? With all that's going on in this world right now, with
all of the open, blatant wickedness and ungodliness, and yet it seems
like on so many of these fronts, here are all these people who
seem to be doing very well as they do these things. David wondered about that. Turn
over to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. Look down at verse 1. Actually,
this is a Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their
death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble. as other men, neither are they
plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them
about as a chain, and violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could
wish. They are corrupt. and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore his people return hither,
and the waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they
say, How doth God know? And is their knowledge in the
Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart
in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day
long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I
say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children." And when I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me. But now you look at the next
statement. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God. Then understood I their end." He looked down, he saw all that
was going on, how those doing the greatest wickedness prospered,
increased in riches, everything was going on fine, and he thought,
well, they're faring a lot better than me. If God was just, this
wouldn't be happening. He said, that is until I went
into that place where God reveals His truth, where God reveals
how He is. When I heard His Word that declares
what will happen to me and how God will deal with all men, He
says, then understood I therein, surely thou didst set them in
slippery places, thou casteth them down into destruction, how
are they brought into desolation as in a moment?" They are utterly consumed with
terrors. As a dream when one awaketh,
so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image. A long time ago I read a statement
somewhere, I don't know where I read it, but it has always
stuck in my mind. And that statement was a very
true one. It said this, the wheels of God's
justice grind exceedingly slow. but they grind exceedingly fine. Nothing escapes the justice of
God. And so when we see this, we ought
never to lose sight of this truth that God is just and He will
deal with all the wicked in that justice, and even though some
seem allowed to advance and progress and prosper in this, he has a
reason for it. One reason might be that some
are allowed to do so to advance God's overall purpose. The wrath of man, he says. shall praise the Lord, and the remainder he will restrain."
Whatever in this wickedness that goes on in this world, it will
in some way be used of God to advance His cause, to set forth
His purpose and glorify Him in some way, and what isn't going
on It's because He restrained it. But in the end, it will meet
with His justice. It may be that some are turned
loose to this in order that they might be judgment to others. That was often the case with
the peoples all around the nation of Israel. It might be that some
are allowed to go on in this display of wickedness and disregard
for God, that they might be shown to be more inexcusable. Some might be allowed to go on
in such a course that they might be shown as examples of His justice
to others like Pharaoh was. For this cause have I raised thee up. But just
mark it down. Apart from God's grace, sin faced
with a just God equals hell, equals eternal justice and judgment,
which can never be ending because it can never be satisfied by
sinners such as we are. God is just. But there is a second front on
which The justice of God is demonstrated. He demonstrates His justice in
salvation. And boy, here is where a lot
of people who seem to think they know a lot about salvation and
a lot about God, they don't have a clue about this. God must be just in salvation,
the salvation of a sinner, as much so as He would be in the
judgment of a sinner. If God is just in all things, And if men are all sinners and
lawbreakers, which they are, how then can God justly save
them? How can He, as He is, and they
as they are, without any alteration in one or the other, how can He save them? You see, understanding. John, in 1 John 5, says this. He says, God has given unto us
an understanding that we may know the true God. An understanding,
something about God's justice in salvation, is essential to
our knowing the truth and glorifying God in Christ. Turn over to Job chapter 25. Job chapter 25. This is a question
that Job speaks of. Look down in verse 4. How then can man be justified
with God? Now, do you know what that word
justify means? The word justify means to declare
one righteous. Job says, how then can man be
justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight, how
much less man that is a worm, and the Son of Man which is a
worm." Here's God and He's holy. Here is man and he's a sinner. If God were only just benevolent
in some way, He might could do toward man But if he's just, how can he do that and be right? How can God save a sinner without
changing from what he is or acting contrary to himself? How could
he ever save us and be just in the doing of it? Job began in chapter 9. I know it is so of a truth, but
how should man be just with God? You know, it would just be wonderful if
we could see a Word within the Word. And by that I mean if we
could just get a grip and a grasp on the fact that right there
at the first and right there plain and clear in the word justification
is what? J-U-S-T. Just. Whatever God does, in whatever
justification is, He must be just. And I hear oftentimes a lot of
people, I read a lot of things wherein men talk about justification. And what they call justification
makes God absolutely unjust. You see, all of God's attributes,
or all that God is, is displayed and honored in His salvation,
which is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, but none of
His attributes in that any more so than is justice. Turn over and look in Proverbs
chapter 17. God abides not only by what He is, but He
abides by the same standard that He commands men. Now, you look at that 15th verse
of Proverbs 17. This is what God says now. He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just,
even they both are abomination to the Lord. Now, let me ask
you this. Does not the Bible say that in
and of ourselves, wicked is all that we are? Well, sure it does. And does it not say that the
Lord Jesus Christ, He is the One who is described as the Just
One? And God says here, the One who
justifies the wicked and condemns the just, they both are an abomination
to the Lord. And yet, isn't that what we're
saying that has taken place? Here we are the wicked, and God
justifies us. And here is Christ the just,
and He's condemned him. How can that be? Has God shown
Himself unjust in this? No. Because something that He
has done, and that something is His divine act of imputation,
that has rendered our salvation in Christ to be just exactly
in every point just, because the Lord has laid on
Him the iniquity of us all. A real transfer has taken place. The Lord Jesus Christ dies on
that cross as a substitute in the place of His people, and
His righteousness has also been imputed to them, so on the cross in salvation the Lord declares righteous all His people. and does so justly
because He has made them the righteousness of God in Christ. And He puts His Son to death on that cross under the hand
of His inflexible justice because their sins, He has been made
sin for them and bears their sins. He stands as a wicked sinner
before God, and God condemns him and puts him to death. And
he's just on every point. If there's anything that I'd
love and pray that you'd be enabled to see, it's that. Because this
is the way God announces and declares Himself. Turn over to
Isaiah 45. This is who I want you to look
at, know something about, and trust in. Not some God who's
been stripped of His honor, or some God who's shown Himself
unjust in salvation. But look here in Isaiah chapter
45 and verse 21. Or go back to verse 20 and listen
to God. He says, "...assemble yourselves,
and come, draw near together, Ye that are escaped of the nations." This whole world full of nations,
full of people under the wrath and judgment of God. But He's
talking about some here who have escaped it by His grace. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray unto a God that cannot say. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?"
God says, I'm the one who's been saying this all the time from
eternity past. I'm the only one that salvation's
in. Have not I the Lord? And there
is no God else beside me. a just God and a Savior. You see, the only God there is,
the God from old eternity, is the only God there is, and He
says, I'm a just God and a Savior. And if the God we trust in, believe
on, have our hope in, if he's not that, a just God and a Savior. Somebody said, God's just, but
He's also a Savior. That's not it. It doesn't say
but there, it says and. He's a just God and a Savior,
and in some way, those two things are not contradictory. And there is none beside me.
So he says, look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Well, how in the world can God
be this just God and at the same time a Savior? How can He deal
with my sin? How can He count me righteous? in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified." And that's the way he saves all his people.
Look at the last verse in Isaiah 45, "...in the Lord shall all
the seed of Israel," he's talking about spiritual Israel here,
"...be justified in the Lord, declared righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ." because He put away our sin and because God
has made us the righteousness of God in Him. In the Lord shall
all these spiritual Israel be justified and shall glory. You see, God is not only gracious
and merciful and loving in Christ, He is also just. There never
is a place There never is a time, there never is anything in which
God is more just than He is in saving His people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ crucified is the grand
display of divine justice. Christ crucified is the manifestation
of God's being right in saving His people, and the gospel is
the declaration of this truth. God is just to justify that it
is count righteous and holy every person believing on Christ. Is that right? Look over in Romans
chapter 3. Look down at verse 24. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness, for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just, and the of him which believeth in Jesus."
God declares in sending His Son, in sending His gospel, that He
was right, that He is just to declare those for whom Christ
died and who are brought according to that to believe on Him, He
is right and just to count them righteous. Why? He's dealt with and put away
their sin, and He's also made them perfectly righteous, both
in Jesus Christ the Lord. You see, that's what Zechariah
is talking about when he records this statement from God. Awake, O sword! What sword is
that? The sword of justice. Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd. You mean the sword of God's justice
is not going to fall on the sheep? No, it's going to fall on the
shepherd. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow. Who can that be but His Son?
Saith the Lord of hosts, Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered, and I will turn My hand upon the little ones." Now, I want you to think about
some things in light of God being just. He would, being just, be unjust
to bless us or receive us in our sin. He'd be unjust to take
us into His holy heaven. He'd be unjust not to deal with
us in our disobedience, in our law-breaking, in our sin. So any plan or any gospel, whatever
it is, that takes men into God's favor and heaven without dealing
with this issue makes God unjust. All right? Here's the second
thing. Also, God would be unjust to send anyone to hell that Christ
died for and paid their sin debt. And yet you know that's what
a good portion, the most of this world would believe concerning
Christ. That Christ died for everybody and yet here are all these people
that he supposedly died for and they're going to go to hell. Well, if they do, if Christ did
die for them, and they perish, God's unjust. An old hymn writer summed it
up about as well as it can be summed up. He said, payment God
cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, and
then again at mine. Suppose you have a debt for a
hundred dollars. And you go down to the office
where it's owed, and you hand them $100, and you get a receipt,
and you leave, and a few days later, a week later, a month
later, you get a bill in the mail that says you owe $100.
Oh, doesn't that infuriate you? You're so indignant at that injustice. God would be unjust if he sent
anyone to hell for whom Christ died. That's why Christ gave himself
for the church, laid down his life for his sheep, and they're
all going to be saved. All right? Here's the third thing. His justice. now satisfied by the sufferings
and death of Christ. His justice now requires that
He bless everyone that Christ died for and reward them according
to His righteousness. I used to read those passages
in the New Testament where he talks about judging every man
according to his works. And, you know, you think about
that, and for a moment you're full of fear. But the truth is, a right understanding
of what I'm saying tonight lays that fear to rest, because we
know that the Lord Jesus Christ, being our Savior, our surety,
suffering in our place and being made the very righteousness of
God to us, His works are our works. And thank God we'll be rewarded
according to His works. According to His righteousness. And Paul talks about justification
unto life. He's talking about the sufferings
and the obedience and death of Christ being that ground upon
which those he died for are now entitled to eternal life. You can almost be so bold to
say as they have a right now to eternal life. because of what
Christ has done. Paul writes to Titus and he says,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. You see, when God gives us understanding
and faith, spiritualized to see the way in which He is just and
yet the justifier of those who believe on Christ. Then that's our hope for all
eternity with sins that are past Sins
that are present, and sins that are future. Let me show you one
last verse. Turn over to 1 John chapter 1. Look down at verse 9. If we confess our sins, or since
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. Faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John says, don't sin, but when
you sin, You have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And as we confess our sins, He's
just faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If you remember when Abraham was talking to God, And he simply reminded God of
God's own principle as a just God. He said, there were 20 righteous
people in Sodom. You wouldn't do it, would you?
No. Well, if there were 10, you wouldn't, would you? No. Why? Because God's just. Well, you say, but God did. He rained fire and brimstone
down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the
plain, didn't he? That's right. But he took that righteous man
out before he did it. Righteous Lot. We say, Lot was about as bad,
it seemed like, as the people of the cities were. How can it
be? that we can say that he is. Moreover,
how can God say that he is righteous? In Christ. In Christ. God was just in what he did to
condemn Sodom and destroy it, and he was just to count Lot
a righteous man in Christ. And any gospel, like I said,
any religion, whatever it is, that does not set forth God in
this way as a just God and a Savior is not the gospel and is not
God. He said, look unto me, there's
none else but me, and I'm a just God and a Savior. Our Father, tonight we pray and
praise You for all that You are, and for that salvation that honors
and glorifies You as a just God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
for that grace in Him, that work of righteousness which He accomplished,
which enables You, allows You to be just. and yet to justify
such sinners as we are. Count us righteous, even the
righteousness of God in Him. We thank you and we praise you
tonight and pray that you would give us understanding. Give us eyes to see the glory
and the mystery and the wonder of this salvation. Watch over us as we go out into
the remainder of this week. Bless us for Christ's sake. And
bring us back at that next time in your providence that you've
appointed. For we pray and ask all things
in the glorious name and precious blood and righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.